To interfere with the person,
freedom or property of another person without his consent, except for the purpose of
prevention of such interference is to inflict injustice on that person.

People can enter voluntarily into binding contractual agreements with each other.
To break a contract is injustice.

People have natural non-contractual obligations towards their children and parents.
To break these natural non-contractual obligations is injustice.

Marriage is a voluntary contract giving rise to natural non-contractual obligations
between the members of the resulting family. To break the contractual and natural non-contractual
obligations arising out of marriage is injustice. The contract of marriage can be dissolved by divorce,
but the parties must insure that no injustice results from such dissolution.

Government is one or more people whose responsibility is to protect people within the
area of governance from injustice, to resolve disputes between people within the
area of governance, and to ensure general public safety and well-being.

To perform its duties government has powers to interfere with the person,
freedom or property of people within its governance without their consent,
such as, preventing and punishing criminal activities, providing a workable legal system for resolution of
disputes between people, and raising taxes to finance the legitimate activities of government.
Such interference is strictly limited to the minimum necessary for
the performance of the duties of government. Use of these powers beyond the necessary minimum or
for any other purpose than performance of the duties of government is injustice.

Any form of injustice described above is crime or civil wrong, whether it is committed by
private individuals, groups of individuals or governments.

Notes:
The above principles and these notes to them are stated from prime principles without reference to any existing
principles of government, and for that reason can raise questions from those whose thinking is affected
by the presently prevalent legal, moral and political doctrines (e.g. 'human rights', 'social justice', etc.).
Analysis of the fundamental issues facing mankind
today, and comments on current issues and events from the standpoint of
right and wrong, true and false can be found at truth-and-justice.info.

Equality means equality under the law only: "The legal rights of any single person in the
world are equal to the legal rights of the rest of mankind". It does not mean economic or any other equality.
The legal rights of groups of persons (tribes, nations, commercial, social or any other organisations)
are equal to those of a single private person. Governments do not have any rights, or privileges, they
have only duties and powers necessary for the exercise of these duties.

Freedom of a person means freedom to use one's time and energy in accordance with one's
own wishes, to acquire, own, and dispose of property, to enter into legally binding contractual agreements with other
persons, including marriage. The principle of equality under the law imposes on the freedom of the person
limitation that he cannot interfere with the freedom of others without their consent. The only legal way in
which a person can interact with other people is voluntary cooperation, voluntary gift, or contract.
Contract, however, imposes limitation on the freedom of the parties - performance of the contractual
obligations. Freedom of a person is also constrained by the natural non-contractual obligations arising
out of birth and marriage and of the obligation to comply with administrative laws imposed by a
legitimate government for the purpose of administration of justice, public safety and well-being.
The only legitimate reason for interfering by a person with other person's freedom without his consent is prevention of such interference
(self-defence and prevention of crime).

Person means an adult of sound mind, whether a single
person or any group of persons. The rights of a national state are equal to the rights of a single private person.

Responsibility of children and adults of unsound mind is limited to the extent of their
ability, responsibility beyond that limit lies with their parents or guardians.

Interference with the person means infliction on a person of any physical or
mental harm, including death.

Interference with the freedom of a person means forcing a person to perform some action
against his will, or preventing a person from performing an action against his will.

Interference with the property means any damage, destruction, use,
causation of change, taking of possession, or prevention of access or use by the owner.

General public safety and well-being means for the benefit of the nation as a whole and
not of a group within a nation at the expense of another group. It is limited to the general and strictly necessary,
and does not amount to personalised services and gratification of personal desires.

Forcing means any form of compulsion or inducement by use of force, deception
or breach of contractual obligation.

Crime is injustice inflicted with deliberate intent, or as a result of
gross negligence. It is an act which must be prevented through fear of punishment. Attempt to
commit a crime is also a criminal act. Examples are
murder, rape, theft, arson, intentional bodily injury, fraud, abuse of government powers (politics).

Civil wrong is injustice inflicted without deliberate intent, and not as a result of gross negligence. Examples unintentional damage to property, unintentional
breach of contractual obligation. In such cases the remedy is not punishment, but compensation
or restitution. Crimes often, but not necessarily, involve civil wrongs. In such cases punishment
must be accompanies by restitution or compensation.

Powers are rights to commit acts, which, if committed by persons
not having these rights would have constituted crimes or civil wrongs. For example to take money from
a person by use of threat of force is the crime of 'robbery'. To finance its legitimate activities
governments are given powers to levy taxes, that is to take money from people against their will
under the threat of imprisonment. Nobody except government can have such powers.
If any person or group of people (a commercial company, a charity, a political party, a trade union)
would try to collect money for any purpose against any person's will using a threat,
they would be committing crime. Moreover, the power of government to collect taxes is limited to
collecting taxes for the purpose of financing its legitimate activities. To use this power
to collect money for any other purpose is crime. For example, collecting taxes for the purpose of
'making the pips of the rich squeak' (the reason for high taxation given by a British Labour Chancellor of the Exchequer) was a crime against property committed by the British government (Principle 4).
The income tax rate for the year 1976-77 in Britain was 83% on incomes of £20,000 p.a after a personal
allowance of £735, that is a single person earning £21,000 a year was left with £4,180, £16,820 went to
the government.

Politics, in the context of government, is abuse of government powers
to promote a particular interest. For example to promote the personal career of a politician, or to favour a group of people on whose votes or financial support a particular government depends. A government
could be elected, because it promises to pass laws favouring a particular group, or it can
yield to pressures by a group when already in power. At the international level it could
use wars, economic blockades, or restrictive trading practices to obtain a dishonest advantage
or influence over another country. In all cases a government indulging in politics, rather than performing honest
administration over its area of governance, is abusing its powers. Abuse of government powers is crime (Principle 9). Any form of favouritism by governments violates the principle of
equality under the law (Principle 1) and is crime.